(1st POV)
(Southern Serengeti)
BOOOOM!!!
We exploded out. Dirt and greens were thrown flying everywhere due to the sheer force that burst out.
The lion was hanging on for dear life to not be ragdolled over the ridge, but I simply decided to tear away the whole earth with him.
Another lion was permanently locked on my back, his jaw clamping down hard and tight. And I threw the three of us down the rocky hill.
"You're crazy!!" the lion on my back released his hold to scream at me.
The lion I had in front of me, on the other hand, only screamed in pure terror as we began falling down the slopes.
Another explosion resounded when we crashed on the slopes. Small trees were uprooted, and the ground was traumatized at every impact point. The weight of the three lions was too much for the wet soil.
After crashing, we rolled down the slopes. We rolled until we had a final crash at the base of the kopje. By that point, a lonely silence prevailed where chaos once ruled.
I was the first to get up and shake my dizzy head. My opponents, on the other hand, were not moving anymore. Air got knocked out of their lungs, silencing every sound for a moment as they gasped for air they couldn't breathe.
I was pretty sure they wouldn't be standing up regardless. I adjusted our position with each fall and made them cushion my landing. They were no more than broken bags of flesh.
"You should've run when you heard the warnings," I said while shaking off dirt and leaves from my body.
After defeating the kings of this region and chasing out their pride, I led my own pride to the old kopje. But there, I found two more other rogues. They wouldn't leave even when I roared, so it came down to a fight.
They thought they could use the uneven terrain of the kopje against me. A bigger animal meant lower mobility. But that didn't work too well for them, as I did what a crazy would do and threw us all off from the height of the kopje.
I was not afraid of falling from heights. I had used the tactic of falling from height way back when I fought a leopard as a cub.
They were not prepared for such a crazy plan.
My pride quickly gathered around us as the seconds passed. They saw us all fall from the kopje, so they were a little worried. But they stopped and sighed in relief when they saw me standing over two groveling bodies.
Their internal organs were ruined, and they were bleeding out rapidly. I did not have to do anything else but wait, and I saw them dying a few minutes later.
"That was so stupid!!" Nala came charging at me. When her body crashed on mine in a lion kind of embrace, I realized I was not completely unharmed either.
"Please don't ever do that again," Zuri followed right behind her.
"Yeah, I don't think I will do that again," I said and stretched my body. My muscles flexed and my bones popped here and there. I think I just relocated my shoulder with that action.
I turned towards the kopje after my body felt a little looser. "Anyways, this will be our home from now on. Until I clean the land of the other pests, that is."
The pride went up the hill one after the other while I watched them from the ground. The pride had grown in numbers, but the place was still enough to support us. It was a big kopje after all, only slightly smaller than the total Pride Rocks.
It had its own little ponds and streams to drink from as well, including some shallow caves where the lions could rest when it rained. And it does rain a lot during the wet season.
"How long do you think it will take you before you reclaim everything?" Eshe asked before she climbed up.
"I will do my duty quickly," I replied.
"So a week?" she asked.
"Less," I answered.
I walked up the kopje along with her.
..
..
////////////////////
(The next day)
By morning, I set out two hunting parties. Each party consisted of seven lionesses, making them fourteen hunters in total. The remaining lionesses were to stay in the kopje and look after the cubs.
The lionesses that remained were mostly the older ones, like my mother Sarabi, Nala's mother Sarafina, and such.
I also stayed back, finding no reason to go out hunting when I had two fights yesterday and with many other battles awaiting me.
I told the hunting parties to drag back whatever they hunted down as well. This was done not only for convenience but also to give them some exercise. There were many of them, so they could work together to drag back the carcass, taking turns.
I lay at the highest point of the kopje. The sun was shining down upon the vegetation still wet from the morning dew. Here, I nursed my wounds while I watched the hunting party disappear on the horizon.
The injuries I had were mostly sustained from the fall. Contrary to thinking I was unharmed at the time, the next morning I felt like shit. I had some bruises on my body, and there were shallow bite wounds on my shoulder as well.
I released a long yawn, my body relaxing instinctively as I recognized this place as home. After the long journey and the fights, it was good to finally rest again.
I closed my eyes and basked under the glowing sun. It was not hot due to the wet atmosphere; it felt warm and peaceful as it should be.
But after a long time of rest, the sound of flapping wings made me crack open my eyes. Grim landed right beside me.
"Finished helping them find prey?" I asked.
"Yes. A herd of zebras and wildebeest," he answered. "The buffalo are on the other side of the region, and I don't think the new members are ready to take down a giant just yet."
"What about the other lions that claimed the land in my absence?" I asked.
"I think they realize you have returned. They are all changing their position and moving further away from the south," he said.
I scoffed, "As if that will help them."
"Indeed, quite a futile action. But it does delay the inevitable," he said.
I closed my eyes and lay back down. I had heard what I wanted to hear. I allowed my mind to go blank for a moment as I only focused on the sensation of the cool ground which contrasted with the warmth of the sun.
But before I could drift into a nap, Grim spoke.
"But I found something interesting, my lord," he said.
"Hmmm?" I cracked open one eye to look at him.
"The Central land is controlled by four lion kings," he said.
I rolled my eyes while closing them again. "A bit more troublesome than most."
The lions that form prides in the region were mostly ruled by two kings, so a four-lion coalition was a bit much but nothing I couldn't handle.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," he said.
I paused my relaxed breathing. I slowly propped myself up from lying down and opened both eyes to stare at him deeply. Grim could be said to be someone who knew me the best and also the land.
So I knew there was a reason why he said that.
"What do you mean, Grim?"
"When I first saw them, they had a whole complete pride with them. It's not like the two or three lionesses that the other kings had. They are well-established, with a pride that surpassed twenty members," he said.
"I thought that was weird, so I did some digging. I talked to the few vultures that remained in the Serengeti and found out that these lions were not new kings. They came from the Masai Mara, and they were already kings when they set foot in the Serengeti," he said.
"They are not fraud kings, a product of your absence, but genuine kings," Grim said grimly.
I stayed silent for a beat as I processed his words. But there was something I did not quite understand.
"If they are the kings of the Masai Mara, then why did they come here?" I asked.
"The Serengeti and the Masai Mara have interchanging seasons. When it's dry in the Serengeti, it is wet in the Masai Mara. That is why the prey migrate between these two regions. And since the dry season was ending in the Serengeti, the herds returned with the rain too. And these kings..."
"They came and followed the herd," I completed his sentence, and then a deep frown hung on my face.
"They are smart," I said.
Had I not had the capacity to hunt giants, that would be my strategy too. This meant that the foreign kings were almost as sharp as me. At the very least, they were far more intelligent than the other lions.
"They call themselves the Four Musketeers, and although I do not doubt your ability to defeat them, I would advise you to be careful," he said.
"How big are they?" I asked again.
"Not monsters like you, but they are big. They are also far more capable than the other kings. The only reason why they do not rule the whole of the Serengeti is because of negligence," he said.
I hummed, thinking about that a bit more. "Thank you for the information, Grim."
"The pleasure is all mine," Grim said with a small bow.
I shifted my eyes from him and stared into the horizon once more. This time, my mind was not blank but deep in thought. A low growl slowly escaped on instinct as I thought about these foreign kings.
I was trying to take a few days of rest before I went after the other kings, but I decided to work even faster.
My blood was boiling.
"We'll set out tonight," I told him.
"Already?" Grim asked, a little hesitant.
"I can't rest easy while these lions roam my land as kings," I answered.
And for the moment, I decided to lay back down and close my eyes.
Because tonight, I was going to clean up my territory.
..
..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author : Manage to fart out another chapter thankfully.
Just curious but does any of my reader play MLBB?